Austin Overview

I'd been talking about seeing Austin for quite some time. From Friday, April 24, 2009, to Monday, April 27, 2009, I finally went through with it.

Although technically a city, Austin doesn't feel dense like a city should. With the exception of a few streets (N. Congress, E. 6th, W. 4th), the stores are too big and too scattered. Indeed, even on foot a block off of a major street, I could look down the next block, see not much of anything, and decide it's not worth walking in that direction (unless I already had a destination in mind).

Two things define my image of Austin: dining patios and live music.

First, Austin has a huge number of restaurants, pubs, and bars with outdoor seating, whether in an interior or backyard courtyard or on a wooden patio in front. I guess the weather makes this reasonable year-round.

Second, it's not hype: Austin is the place for live music. Walking down East 6th Street, there was always at least one band in a venue on each side of the street on each block, usually more. Live music is everywhere. For instance, when I dropped by a hotel on a Saturday afternoon to use the bathroom, I saw a band setting up in the lobby.

Regarding Texas, I observed many historical sites spent much time and emphasis on the history of the Republic of Texas: the decade or so after independence from Mexico before joining the United States. Although it's true that it's interesting to talk about the writing of the Texas declaration of independence and the constitution and about the various wars and political maneuverings that happened near both ends of this period, I felt there may have been more focus on this than necessary--it gave a feeling of "look at us; we're different from the rest of the United States; don't you forget it."

I also noticed that everywhere I went, I tended to be surrounded by white people. This surprised me, as I know Texas has a significant immigrant population. It felt a little weird. I guess that the places I visited are ones only white people tend to go? The only time I noticed non-trivial numbers of non-whites (aside from the few occasional brown Hispanic-Americans that looked like the result of multiple generations of intermarriage) involved spotting Chinese students near college campuses.

By the way, although I didn't see many single-family homes in and around Austin (this is simply due to where I went) so my sample is small and unrepresentative, those I saw were as nice and distinctive as those I saw in Atlanta, and larger.

This trip I focused my attention on sights within Austin, and I hit the major ones. There are a few places in Austin that vaguely tempted me and that, on another trip, I might've decided to fit into my schedule. I won't mention places I considered going outside Austin, such as the bluebonnet trail, a driving trail northwest of Austin that passes many miles of bluebonnet flower fields (for which it actually was the perfect time of year). I list undone within-Austin activities here for my future reference:

• explore the Blanton Museum of Art. Although it's Austin's top art museum and most guidebooks put it in their list of top things to do, I looked at the exhibits online and I just wasn't feeling it.
• browse the boutiques and funky shops on South Congress.
• watch the sunset over Lake Travis, probably sitting with a drink on a deck at The Oasis restaurant. (I skipped this only because every day was overcast.)
• walk the various hike/bike trails near the river, especially by Town Lake and Lady Bird Lake.
• visit the Mexic-Arte Museum. It's a small museum that had one exhibit that interested me, but I didn't feel like paying an entrance fee only to see a collection of traditional ritual Nahua Indian masks.
• wander the Unlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum.